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Discussion Medial canthal tilt - Is a downturned medial canthus really a masculine dimorphic trait?

Pendejo

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There is a widespread belief that a downturned medial canthus is a masculine dimorphic trait, however the following study suggests the opposite:

To measure the degree of inclination of the medial canthus, they utilized the medial canthal tilt.

The medial canthal tilt is the angle formed by a horizontal line passing through the lowest point of the medial canthus and a line bisecting the medial caruncle at its lateral end.

Example of the measurement:
Ophthalmic_Plastic__Recon-003.jpg

It depends solely on the inclination of the medial canthus and is not affected in any way by the lateral canthus position.

Now that we know what the medial canthal tilt is, i will include some quotes and images from the study:

"Sixty-six female faces from a high-resolution database of 18- to 30-year-old faces collected over a 2-year period from the University of Toronto student body was used for the study."

"The medial canthal tilt was artificially accentuated for each female face in the database, using Adobe Photoshop CS, creating 66 very subtly altered female faces. Both the altered and unaltered faces were presented side by side in each slide (Fig. 4)."

bashour2007-006.jpg
FIG. 4. Female face before and after accentuating the medial canthal tilt.


bashour2007-007.jpg
FIG. 5. Close-up of the increase in canthal tilt of the eyes (top is normal,below is accentuated tilt).


"Undergraduate student judges from McGill University were recruited and asked to make a forced choice between the unfamiliar faces, as to whether the face on the right or left side of the presented slide was more attractive."

"Female faces with accentuated medial canthal tilt were preferred 93% of the time over unmodified faces, given that if the faces were equal in attractiveness, the faces with accentuated medial canthal tilt should have been chosen 50% of the time. No significant difference between male (94% preference) and female (92% preference) judges was noted."


Basically, images modified to have a downturned medial canthus were preferred in almost all cases, this led the authors of the study to the following conclusion:

"The experimental data presented strongly suggest that medial canthal tilt is a featural cue of some importance in female human facial attractiveness. There is some evidence for identifying medial canthal tilt as both a sexually dimorphic and neotenic feature. Accentuating the medial canthal tilt has the side effect of producing the illusion of a more oblique palpebral fissure."


According to them a downturned medial canthus is a feminine dimorphic and neotenous trait, i personally disagree with this.

The personal conclusion that I draw from this study is that a downturned medial canthus is neither a masculine or feminine dimorphic trait, in my opinion it is a desired trait in both genders that has nothing to do with sexual dimorphism.


What are your thoughts about this? Discuss.
 
According to them a downturned medial canthus is a feminine dimorphic and neotenous trait, i personally disagree with this.
I've seen women use make up to fraud a down-turned medial canthus.

I'm not sure, but i think Andreas Eriksen's eye area looks better, maybe due to the down-turned medial catnthus.

I find this trait attractive, but not necessary for being gl.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3
I find this trait attractive, but not necessary for being gl.
I am not saying it is not a good trait, just not a dimorphic trait.

Look at these women, they would probably look worse if their medial canthi were not downturned:
eeb29eda4a1c5a988bf333ade516f90f.jpgyoung-jennifer-connelly-in-purple-sweater-with-yellow-trim-photo-u1.jpg1e302087e7946000986dcea26a6b9379--claire-forlani-beautiful-eyes.jpg
 
I am not saying it is not a good trait, just not a dimorphic trait.

Look at these women, they would probably look worse if their medial canthi were not downturned:
View attachment 13183View attachment 13184View attachment 13185
Obviously they'd look worse than before, if their down turned medial canthus was eliminated.

But it's not going to make that big of a difference in terms of their PSL value imo.

Idk why, but Andreas Eriksen's eye area looks more dimorphic to me, maybe due to his unique eye shape and medial canthus. @Buddy Boyo .
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7
well it's a masculine trait at least according to the DOM morph
Yeah, that was the first thing I thought and I think the reason why everyone believes the same is because of that morph, however, in the study from which these morphs come, the inclination of the medial canthus is not mentioned at all, so the medial canthus becoming more downturned towards the more masculine faces in the morph might have not been the intention of whoever made that morph.

The study only mentions that males have vertically narrower and more sunken eyes than females.

This is the study:

After thinking more about it, i thought that perhaps having a downturned medial canthus allows males to have a lower lateral canthus, and therefore a lower palpebral fissure height, while maintaining a positive canthal tilt.

Even if this hypothesis was correct, it would still not be accurate to consider it a sexual dimorphic trait.

Definition of sexual dimorphism:
"Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the two sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics beyond the differences in their sexual organs."

This means that a trait that would be considered attractive in a woman would not be considered attractive in a man and vice versa, for example, wide hips or broad shoulders.

But according to the findings of this study, a downturned medial canthus increases female attractiveness, whereas if it really were a masculine dimorphic trait it would have the opposite effect.

@Rkelly
 
After thinking more about it, i thought that perhaps having a downturned medial canthus allows males to have a lower lateral canthus, and therefore a lower palpebral fissure height, while maintaining a positive canthal tilt.
I kind of see what you mean but I'm not entirely convinced.
I can see how it allows you to have a lower lateral canthus but how would that change PFH? PFL and PFH is more dependent on eyeball size and the shape/size of the orbits.
The PFH in this is the same and would probably still remain the same even if they lowered the lateral canthus.
bashour2007-006-jpg.13181

so the medial canthus becoming more downturned towards the more masculine faces in the morph might have not been the intention of whoever made that morph.
I am almost 100% sure that was indeed the intention.

Watch both male and female
JjCNvZn.gif


They are almost opposites. The male gains definition and downward angulation while the female loses definition and medial tilt becomes neutral.
It cannot be a coincidence.

Definition of sexual dimorphism:
"Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the two sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics beyond the differences in their sexual organs."

This means that a trait that would be considered attractive in a woman would not be considered attractive in a man and vice versa, for example, wide hips or broad shoulders.
I don't think the downswung medial canthus is sexually dimorphic in and of itself ONLY if paired with a straight, tight, and angular lower eyelid.
But according to the findings of this study, a downturned medial canthus increases female attractiveness, whereas if it really were a masculine dimorphic trait it would have the opposite effect.
Again it becomes sexually dimorphic once PAIRED with a straight lower eyelid.
In the study the shape and angularity of the lower eyelid were never altered as I mentioned to you in the PM's.
 
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  • #9
I can see how it allows you to have a lower lateral canthus but how would that change PFH?
Lower lateral canthus = Lower upper eyelid

But the position of the lower eyelid would also change so the PFH would stay the same, you are right.
 

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